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 Post subject: PP2 cast to ESB conversion
PostPosted: Tue Aug 04, 2015 2:20 pm 
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I know this is primarily a Vader board (I'm still trawling through the threads to increase my knowledge) but I'm more a Fett man. I thought I'd share with you my conversion of a early PP2 Boba cast into an ESB helmet. It'll be a long road and i can be fairly glacial at times. First goal is to get the ears off and create useable ear platforms. Chopping into this rare cast was a gut wrenching moment.

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Live the dream

Andy


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 Post subject: Re: PP2 cast to ESB conversion
PostPosted: Tue Aug 04, 2015 3:19 pm 
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Location: Colorado Springs, Colorado
Boba Fett envy! I've been watching your thread over at the MPPC and this will be an ultimate Fett!

Looking forward to more.

Dave


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 Post subject: Re: PP2 cast to ESB conversion
PostPosted: Tue Aug 04, 2015 4:35 pm 
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Thanks Dave, it's going to be the ultimate for me certainly. I hope I do it justice. Done a bit more on the lower platform to remove it. It's pretty painstaking to do. I'll wait until they're all off before updating further.


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 Post subject: Re: PP2 cast to ESB conversion
PostPosted: Tue Aug 11, 2015 7:11 am 
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Location: Germany
Is this the malone bucket?
Looks like a nice helmet with a lot of details.

Looking forward to your wip thread.


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 Post subject: Re: PP2 cast to ESB conversion
PostPosted: Sat Aug 15, 2015 6:18 pm 
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Turrican wrote:
Is this the malone bucket?
Looks like a nice helmet with a lot of details.

Looking forward to your wip thread.


It's the 'CT Malone' as opposed to the 'Malone Fett' from over ten years ago. It started life as an unaltered cast of the PP2 buck with lots of nice details as you say; details that will be obliterated forever as I ruin it utterly in an attempt to turn it into the ESB :eek .

As you can see I've been working on the ear platofrms. This is it today:

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Live the dream

Andy


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 Post subject: Re: PP2 cast to ESB conversion
PostPosted: Sat Aug 15, 2015 8:22 pm 
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Location: Germany
Awesome. Looking forward to your build!
Any screen matched parts you wanna use as well?
Like a casio calculator or similar stuff?


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 Post subject: Re: PP2 cast to ESB conversion
PostPosted: Sat Aug 15, 2015 9:15 pm 
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Absolutely when I get there down the line. Got a couple of the calcs, got the interior helmet cradle, chin straps and planning to put the visor in properly, get metal ears made etc.

I started with chopping the ears off because I knew it would mean total commitment and couldn't be undone and also because I felt the ear platforms would be a big challenge (they are). I'm pretty slow so progress won't be quick. I'm just having fun really!


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 Post subject: Re: PP2 cast to ESB conversion
PostPosted: Sat Aug 15, 2015 10:39 pm 
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Location: Sydney, Australia
Awesome. Thanks for sharing your build on this site too.
Sensational casting


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 Post subject: Re: PP2 cast to ESB conversion
PostPosted: Sat Aug 22, 2015 5:07 pm 
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Didn't think I'd be working on this until Monday earliest but manged to get a few hours in today whilst flitting between this and the BBQ. Sweet.

Although the gains are really tiny I spent a lot of time working fine areas along the edges and corners. All pretty fiddly stuff. They're more or less where they're going to be barring any changes I need to make to accomodate the ears (which are still in the too difficult pile). Any apparent changes in contour or height are an illusion. There are one or two tiny pits that still need filling but also in these photo's there are one or two areas that look like they need filling that don't. Either way barring the area mentioned in the next paragraph I'm pretty much done with these platforms for now.

I've also finished reworking the bottom left corner of the lower platform and started the work on the mandible where there is material missing from the father cast; it really isn't particularly noticable when the ear platform was on but can be seen in picture 1 of post 1 and picture 2 of post 9. There is a missing chunk by the ear platform and the mandible. It is not complete and I am still working on it you can still clearly see a missing chunk. This is because I would rather start with tiny amounts of filler and build up so I can do my best to follow existing lines rather than add one large lump and simply give my best guess. That being said I cannot deny that with either approach I'm simply eyeballing it the best I can.

Image

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Live the dream

Andy


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 Post subject: Re: PP2 cast to ESB conversion
PostPosted: Mon Aug 24, 2015 5:46 pm 
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It's been raining here all day so rather than try to accomplish anything meaningful to do with real life I spent a few hours on the shed cutting off the other ear. All in all it went better than the other side (mostly). What I didn't realise is that there is a very slight concave quality to the helmet at this point and the helmet bows in very slightly. It's the kind of thing you'd only notice if you decided to chop the ears off. Looking at a picture of the badly damaged Sandy helmet with the left ear off I see the same thing there and there ear platform seems noticably thicker in the front middle. I will still need some tidy up and filler particularly along the front edge but this should be far less time consuming to tidy up than the other side as there are fewer edges and no corners to finish.

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 Post subject: Re: PP2 cast to ESB conversion
PostPosted: Tue Aug 25, 2015 6:52 pm 
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Managed to get a bit more done on the ear platform today. Ignore everything I said about thinking this one would be easier. It was simply difficult for different reasons. I probably spent about three hours playing with the ear platform today. It's more or less there and is pretty smooth and level. Could do with some tiny tidy up but I'll leave that until I've actuallly figured out the ears themselves.

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I also had a little play with filling some of the unique PP2 damage and seeing how to address some of the texturing. The first shot over emphasises the texturing due to the high contrast; you can see it on the rear panel. I did some work on the lower front right mandible and filling the damage by the ear (and to a lesser degree behind the left ear on the trim/banding section). It's not difficult but does require care and patience to smooth out.

Still working on the missing chunk by the ear.

Image

Image

Live the dream.


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 Post subject: Re: PP2 cast to ESB conversion
PostPosted: Wed Sep 02, 2015 4:58 pm 
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For those that don't want to read my ramblings for 500 words the pictures are at the bottom.

Been working on this a fair bit over the last few days and in particular the rear left dome; by working on it I mean

1). Staring at it from all angles for hours on end
2). Reviewing hundreds of pcitures of all of the helmets

I also had a very informative discussion with Lee via email on some ideas. Naturally he was the person to ask having made his own line of helmets. Thanks Lee.

Part of the issue is that the left rear dome distortion that I find disagreeable can only be seen from certain angles and that there are other distortions I don't want to alter which obviously makes this a massive question of interpretation and perception or as Fettpride might call it 'artistic liberty'. Guys, this is all artisitic liberty. In this area I'm eyeballing it. Straight up.

One thing that I observed in the Boba dome is that it has very little symmetry. For those of you who are exclaiming 'No shit Sherlock' bear with me. Obviously there is no front to back symmetry but there's also no left to right symmetry. In particular consideration of the rear left dome where I feel there is a distortion unique to the PP2 Buck and therefore the CTM there are some further considerations.

a). I feel extra material was added to the rear left quarter to repair the cutting damage. I'll add that I confused myself going round and round in circles as to whether the extra material was cast in or was as a result of a repair to the PP2 Buck post removal from the mold. For my considerations it doesn't matter either way. I feel there is extra material there that isn't present in the other helmets.

b). Going back to the symmetry issue I believe the dome curve at the rear right on all the original helmets (as one observes it direct from the back) is a softer more gradual curve than the curve on the rear left that I see as slightly steeper or squarer. Now before giving this much consideration I'd always felt and expected that the dome was pretty much evenly curved across the back from right to left.

If you consider those two factors together i.e. added material to a steeper or squarer side I might find more of a distortion than there really is because that what I was expected to find or what I thought it was supposed to look like.

Anyway, that was the mindset I took when going in; there is a distortion created by dome repair but that it's as distortion on top of a distortion already present created by lack of right to left symmetry in the dome itself. I pretty much took up the technique as described by Ryan earlier in the thread although used a fairly fine paper to sand down with and followed the philosophy espoused by Gareth Keenan of 'Softly softly, catchee monkey'. I felt it would be better to go slow and work in. I've hastily laid on some primer to even out the colour changes otherwise it's more difficult to follow the contours. This took about four or five hours and a reasonable amount of material was removed albeit slowly. I'm not done here yet I don't think but I'd really appreciate some feedback and observations from those who are willing.

Live the dream.

Andy

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 Post subject: Re: PP2 cast to ESB conversion
PostPosted: Fri Sep 11, 2015 4:45 pm 
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Busy week at work. Had a further little play on the dome area I was last working on but have decided to leave where it now is for the moment. I'm pretty content with the shape in that corner now. Over the last six or seven days I've been working on the orbital band on the same area. When I contact Lee he indicated this was an area that he'd spent some time and I must confess I've been playing with it quite lot myself. I felt it was quite badly mis alligned in that back left quarter and didn't roll around particularly nicely. Whilst the gains appear small the input was heavy and the work pretty intricate including added some miniscule amounts of material to thicken the band vey slightly in one spot; feedback would be welcome as always.

I also filled in the the knife gouge and some of the other damage which is probably far more noticeable but incomparison to the band it was nothing. I still need to add some filler to even out the bottom rim of the helmet. Added some primer hastily to even out some of the colour changes so it is easier to see what I have done and I have added some pics of the unaltered cast so you can see exactly what I have chnaged by how much.

Live the dream.

Andy


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 Post subject: Re: PP2 cast to ESB conversion
PostPosted: Sun Sep 13, 2015 4:53 pm 
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Been working on the mandibles. Used the drilling tiny holes technique offered up by a few people on MPPC forum and then pressed in hard with milliput superfine 2 part epoxy putty. After 24 hours that stuff is rock hard. Also filled in nearly all of the signature PP2 damage; I am still gently working around the dent area so I've chopped it out of the photo.

Also gently sanded the whole thing with a very fine sponge to even out some of the weave texture issue from the buck. The texture thing isn't uniform. In some cases I can barely detect it at all. Spent a lot of time doing that.

Image

Image

Andy


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 Post subject: Re: PP2 cast to ESB conversion
PostPosted: Sun Sep 20, 2015 4:25 pm 
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Nice progress so far :thumbsup
Looking forward to see some paint on it.


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